Michigan governors aren't breaking entirely new ground in the
ongoing U.S. collapse into fascism. Sure, they'll be able to overthrow
local elected governments and install cronies and corporations to rule
over Americans without the pretense of public servants mediating. But
the president of the United States can already do that to the entire
country. I wonder if anyone remembers these lines from Congressman
Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment for George W. Bush:

"In addition, on May 9, 2007, President Bush released 'National
Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51,' which effectively gives the
president unchecked power to control the entire government and to
define that government in time of an emergency, as well as the power to
determine whether there is an emergency. The document also contains
'classified Continuity Annexes.' In July 2007 and again in August 2007
Rep. Peter DeFazio, a senior member of the House Homeland Security
Committee, sought access to the classified annexes. DeFazio and other
leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, including Chairman Bennie
Thompson, have been denied a review of the Continuity of Government
classified annexes. In all of these actions and decisions, President
George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as
President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the
prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of
the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush,
by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal
from office."

We still don't know in full what the presidential powers amount to,
despite them now resting in the supposed hands of a foreign-born Muslim
Socialist terrorist-lover. That nonsense is for public consumption, of
course. The consolidating of power in the hands of presidents and
governors who answer to corporate overlords is not for public
consumption. But it has moved from partially secret imperial decrees to
bills passed through legislatures.

Wisconsin's assault on workers and public services has also been
done through a legislature, but only a portion of a legislature in an
unconstitutional manner approved of by the governor's consigliere.
This, too, is old hat in Washington, D.C. "My lawyer said I could" has
been used to "legalize" such crimes as aggressive war, torture,
warrentless spying, and imprisonment without trial. Those policies --
no longer crimes -- have advanced from secret "legal" memos to
presidential decrees under Obama. But the "lawyers" who got them going
aren't through yet. By "looking forward" Obama has left people like
John Yoo free to lobby for illegal war in Libya instead of what he
should be doing, lobbying for early parole from prison.

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Disaster fascism uses 9-11 and the draining of public treasuries in
tandem as complementary shocks to respond to. While states work on
creating 50 mini-Duces, the U.S. House holds hearings on the importance
of hating Muslims, and the Senate holds a hearing the same day on the comical
subject of "Who Can Name a Nation That Could Conceivably Threaten the
United States' Trillion Dollar a Year Military?" You'll notice that the
Director of National Intelligence can't do it.

Wisconsin holds the potential to build resistance, but it has to be
properly understood. Michael Moore is right that the needed lesson is
the imbalance between the super-rich and all the rest of us. The myths
about only the wealthy favoring liberalism while the poor defend the
rights of the plutocrats are being exploded. Leaving over half the
nation's wealth in the hands of 400 people destroys representative government, equality of opportunity, and the health of every community in the country.

But Michael Moore is wrong that we were bullied into backing the
bankster bailout. We never backed it. Congress did. Bush did. Obama
did. The people did not.

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And Rachel Maddow is wrong that Wisconsin has created resistance
because the Governor's agenda is unpopular. Almost everything our
governments do is unpopular.

What's different here is the presence of unions, which still exist
in the public sector in some states; and the alignment of a just and
popular cause with the interests of the Democratic Party, which is far
from common; and the presence in Wisconsin of a living tradition of
progressive education and activism.

We have to understand this in order to build on it. We must use the
courts and our own lawyers and the Democrats. But Democrats don't grow
spines all by themselves. And judges don't rule for justice in
societies that have no use for it. The movement must remain a popular
movement willing to continue without compromise, pushing back against
the fascist slide, but also willing to push for positive changes, such
as the repeal of Taft-Hartley and the creation of the legal right to
unionize, whether or not the Democrats want it.

A general strike is needed immediately, with demands including the
taxation of the rich and of corporations and of financial investments,
cuts to the obscenely bloated military, and legalization of the right
to organize in the workplace. We should not work, we should not go to
school, until those demands are met. And they can be, and quickly, if
we all work nonviolently to make it happen. This is what democracy
means, and it need not belong to Egyptians only.

Walking out of school (at 2 pm on Friday!) may seem like an odd way
to support public education. But that education needs improvements that
should be part of our demands. Do you learn peace studies in your
school? Do you learn nonviolence? Do you learn about labor history? Do
you learn where the 8-hour day came from? Do you know what Louis
Brandeis said about democracy and the concentration of wealth? Do you
know that three years ago Bush and Obama and McCain sat around a table
and decided to take enough money to alleviate everybody's hardship all
over the country and . . . gave it to Wall Street crooks instead of
prosecuting them for their crimes? Are you aware that our government's
financial crises could be solved by ending a war that two-thirds of us
want ended? If not, walk out and hold an independent study day, week,
or month. And those of you who have learned from history won't need me
to tell you this: please walk out and help teach others.

David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online (more...)